Utilizing Public Relations Content Across Multiple Brand Channels

September 14, 2015

When creating a piece of content for media outlets, there are many other communications channels the content can be shared across after it’s published online or in print. After celebrating an exciting placement, why not use the content in a variety of ways to get the most exposure out of it? Here’s a look at a successful cross-channel marketing campaign.

One of our clients, Vettec, sells its products only through certified dealers and has a strong awareness among farriers, the certified professionals who trim horse hooves and fabricate horseshoes. In order to grow its business, Vettec was looking for a way to increase brand awareness among horse owners and motivate them to ask their veterinarians and hoof care professionals about Vettec’s products.

Portavoce PR recommended that Vettec engage horse owners and utilize storytelling to educate them about important seasonal health concerns. We identified the following strategies to achieve this:

Leverage the popularity of Vettec’s Farrier-at-Large Tab Pigg’s expertise and approachability, and expand his authority into communications channels outside of Vettec.com

Drive horse owners to visit Vettec.com

Repurpose published content on the brand’s blog and social media channels

As part of the public relations plan, Portavoce PR works with Vettec to research and identify seasonal and health topics of concern for horse owners. With each topic chosen, Portavoce PR interviews a farrier or expert within Vettec about the issue. Building on research and interviews, Portavoce PR composes byline articles, press releases or news briefs that communicate the messages and include Vettec product points.

Once each piece is finalized, Portavoce PR either writes a targeted pitch letter for bylines and/or distributes the news to the horse sector media list. Portavoce PR works with editors to provide them with the full-length material, photos or any other information they need. The media placements ultimately help horse owners learn about new hoof care methods and products and understand how they relate to common conditions and issues in the equine industry.

Cross-channel marketing has helped Vettec generate more engagement from their social media community beyond the byline placements. Each editorial piece is posted on the Vettec blog and social media channels, which helps extend the reach to Vettec’s fan base and online presence.

Be creative with the different ways you can utilize an article. Here’s a checklist for some potential ideas to repurpose your content:

Draft blog posts

Post on social media

Use the written content as a script for YouTube videos

Plug excerpts of the written content in company newsletters

Distribute content internally for employees to use and talk about with customers

All of these platforms are great ways to engage your audience and share the same content in a variety of ways. This helps you get the most out of each piece and ultimately sets you up to be a thought leader in your industry. Next time a piece of material is created for your brand, ask yourself, ‘How can this be used across all of the platforms we have available?’

Below is an example of an article that was published in Appaloosa Journal, an equine industry magazine, and also posted on Vettec’s blog and Facebook page.

Outside of the magazine readers, there were some impressive statistics from the blog with 7,279 views of the post itself. The magazine has a print circulation of 20,000 and 534,000 unique monthly visitors (UMV).

Vettec also shared the blog post link on its Facebook channel three separate times, and the article received 1,524 likes, 62 comments and 475 shares, reaching more than 90,000 people. The interaction on this specific post was significant, and popular among Vettec’s Facebook audience. On top of the publication’s UMV and circulation, the social media and blog channels brought in nearly 100,000 additional impressions.